Connecting with the broader world

IN an increasingly borderless world, multilingualism is becoming more and more important – which is why now is not the time to limit ourselves linguistically because it would also mean limiting ourselves economically, technologically and scientifically.

Yet that is what we seem to be doing: Following a push to increase the use of Malay, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali has called for the Public Service Department to consider punitive measures to enforce the use of the language in the civil service.

After half a century with Bahasa Malaysia as the country’s official language, as the teaching medium in schools, and as the language most of us use in communicating with different communities, do we really need such a measure?

It would obviously negatively impact the use of English as well as the desire to learn the language, and that is not something we need now, when the one constant complaint companies make when they can’t find suitable graduates to hire is a lack of proficiency in English among our students.

Many have said nay to the idea, among them Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah; former international trade and industry minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz; and the G25 group of eminent Malays.

They have a point. For historical, political and sociological reasons, English is one of the most widely spoken among the 6,500 spoken languages in the world.

It is the language used in international business, tourism, technology, science, aviation and diplomacy – and according to statista.com, in 2020, more than a quarter of the content on the Internet was in English.

In fact, there are numerous statistics that underline its importance: English is the official language in 53 countries out of 195 nations and is spoken and taught in over 118 countries; it is the first language of about 400 million people worldwide and another 750 million are non-native speakers; in 2020, according to the British Council, two billion people in the world were studying English – the list goes on.

Of course, Bahasa Malaysia does a brilliant job of unifying a nation of so many different races and cultures. Following independence from British colonial rule, it was a point of pride to champion our own language. But even back then, our leaders were aware of the importance of the “colonial language”.

This was made clear as early as the Third Malaysia Plan (1976-1980), which stated that although the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia was to continue to be vigorously implemented, “measures must be taken to ensure English would not be sacrificed”.

It clearly defined that English needed to be maintained to ensure the country would not be left behind in scientific and technological development nor be disadvantaged in international trade and commerce.

In fact, in the 1970s, Malaysia attracted foreign investment in establishing semiconductor and other electronic manufacturing factories because English was widely used and understood here.

When Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025) last September, among the ambitious targets that he set was to have the country develop high-tech industries by 2025. And for that, we need science and technology knowledge, most of which is accessible in English.

Why are we threatened by knowing another language? As Karim pointed out, being proficient in English does not make one less Malaysian or less Malay.

Is our sense of being Malaysian so weak that we have to cut ourselves off from the world beyond our borders to maintain it?